Mission & Vision Statement

Our mission is to provide a college and career bound culture that fosters student achievement through high expectations, rigorous instruction, and collaborative partnerships with families and social emotional support.

It is our vision to collaborate with a community where students achieve excellence in a positive environment. We develop productive leaders by empowering the whole child emotionally, socially and academically.

Pre K-8

Gresham School of Excellence

Principal's Message

Greetings and Welcome to Gresham

It has been an amazing experience serving as Principal of Gresham School of Excellence. The collaborative efforts of our teachers, staff, parents and students has helped us make substantial progress. This is only the beginning for us. We have much more work to do as we continue on this journey to become a level 1 school. Despite the challenges that we face we are moving forward in excellence. As the author Og Mandino once asserted, “We are LIONS. We will persist until we succeed.”

Our History

Building on Our History to
Create a Culture of Excellence

Gresham School of Excellence is named in honor of Walter Quintin Gresham (1832-1895). Gresham served as Postmaster General, a judge on the U.S. Courts of Appeals, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury. He was also an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Gresham School of Excellence opened in 1895 and originally contained 8 classrooms. The building was enlarged twice, with 10 additional classrooms.

Due to dramatic enrollment growth, a 24-classroom annex building – now the school’s main building – was added in 1967. The additional space included a lunchroom and library and helped ease overcrowding at the school.

The building was renovated in 2013. Today it contains 42 classrooms and serves 317 students.

AUSL (Academy for Urban School Leadership) is a Chicago nonprofit school management organization that creates schools of excellence by developing highly effective teachers and transforming educational outcomes for students in the lowest performing schools.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) turned over management of Gresham School of Excellence to AUSL in 2014 as a turnaround school. Turning around a school is one approach that CPS uses to improve neighborhood schools that have been failing for many years. The transformation begins with the new leadership and teachers in the building to deliver effective instruction and the right climate and culture to the same neighborhood students.

AUSL is committed to to providing all AUSL students with a quality education to prepare them for college and career.

Staff List

Questions for Our Staff?

If you have any questions, the Gresham School of Excellence staff will be happy to assist you.